


The Death Sentence

by Cynic_al



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 19:03:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7544254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cynic_al/pseuds/Cynic_al
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some Cadets are getting their first ship assignments. Cadet Jake isn't too happy about where he's being sent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Death Sentence

**Author's Note:**

> A plot bunny attacked me when I saw that Into Darkness was on cable. I wondered what the next people to crew the Enterprise thought when they found out what ship they were going on. That's especially true seeing the trailers for the latest movie. My goodness the carnage!

Ameri walked out into the quad of Starfleet academy campus. She was beaming about her placement on a science vessel headed out to study a gas cloud in the Galore sector. It was a celebratory day for most. But Jake sat desolate with his head in his hands.

“What’s happened?” asked Ameri.

“Crew assignments were posted,” said Jake.

“I know. So?”  
He handed her a data pad and she scanned it.

“Oh god,” he cried burying his face back into his hands.

“Oh gods,” she said sitting down next to Jacob. “The Enterprise. Maybe it’s a mistake.”

“I didn’t even know they’d finished construction,” Jake moaned.

“It says here that they’re in the final phase. Just starting preliminary crew selections.” Ameri scrolled through the details on the data pad. “It’s only an interim posting. Look you’re wanted for your engineering background. You'll help with the testing of the warp drive and the final installation of the engineering systems. It doesn’t say you’ll be staying on as permanent crew once the ship is done.”

“It might as well,” cried Jake. “I’d be an ideal crewman aboard the new ship since I’ve been working with the designer for the reconfigured drive assembly. I’m doomed!”

“You could ask for reassignment,” suggested Ameri.

“I can’t do that!” cried Jake.

“Why not?” asked Ameri.

“I just can’t okay? I’d never live it down. Kirk’s got the brass wrapped around his finger. If I request a different assignment, I’ll be black-listed at Star-fleet for my entire career.”

“Yeah but you’d be alive,” said Ameri.

“All I’ve ever wanted was to be an engineer on a starship. If I asked for reassignment they’ll send me to the outer rings of some god forsaken planet outpost. I might as well be dead anyway if that’s where I end up.”

“Calm down,” said Ameri, “you look like you’re about to pass out.”

“Calm down! I can’t calm down! I just got handed a death sentence!”

“Surely the odds aren’t that bad, I know they’ve had some issues in the past…”

“Every single incarnation of that ship has met with catastrophic destruction. Every single one. And 75% of people assigned to crew each ship has died or been permanently disabled by their time aboard that ship.”

“Seriously? Wow, I didn’t realize it was that bad I mean they promoted the guy to captain straight out of the academy I assumed it meant he had the qualifications and skills to back it up.”

“No, Kirk became Captain because of a technicality. He was a stowaway on the first mission he challenged the acting captain and took advantage of the cataclysm on Vulcan. Then when he violated the prime directive and lied about it in an official report he was suspended.”

“How on earth did he get back in?”

“Admiral Marcus reinstated him to go after that Khan guy for revenge on Pike and to cover up that he’d been using Khan to create massive stock piles of advanced weaponry. Khan only attacked the federation because Marcus was holding his crew hostage.”

“That’s seriously messed up. So Kirk gets a ship under false pretenses how has he still got a command?”

“Like I said he’s got the brass wrapped around his finger. Apparently crashing your second starship into a major earth city and killing millions of people means you get another commendation.”

“The first Enterprise didn’t get destroyed though did it?”

“Not completely, but it was so badly damaged after being ejected from the black hole it was cut up for salvage and a new one was built instead.”

“But he’s done some good stuff too right? He stopped that Romulan guy, and Marcus too.”

“Not really, that was mostly Commander Spock, he used the future ship to disable Nero’s ship and he was in command of the Enterprise while Kirk was held hostage by Khan whom he let out of the brig after seeing him take out an entire Klingon patrol. Khan was the one who took out Marcus. Spock’s actions saved Khan's entire crew, and gave them a bargaining chip with Khank. Kirk’s actions endangered the entire crew, left his chief engineer in dock in favor of an under qualified ensign, and gave a super intelligent genetically enhance solider access to a mega starship full of weapons he designed to be able to kill Klingons. What do you think that technology would do to a star fleet ship?”

“Why? If any of that is true why does Kirk still have his commission?”

“That is a question I’ve been asking myself as I’ve been sitting here contemplating my mortality,” said Jake.

“What are you going to do?” asked Ameri.

“I don’t know,” said Jake, “The ship’s almost ready to go it’ll be a month in dry dock if she isn’t pressed into service early that is. Then she’ll probably be sent on some kind of routine mission that will become a shit storm before 48 hours have passed.”

“A month huh?”

“Yeah why?”

“Well you just need to buy time so that the ship leaves on their mission. If what you’re saying is true about Kirk’s habit of getting into trouble, then by the time six weeks have lapsed then it’s more than likely the ship will have been either destroyed or in dry dock pending serious refitting. You’ll be reassigned without having to ask for it.”

“Ameri you’re a genius! I was invited to do a study on warp field dynamics with Professor Nox. I hadn’t answered his invite yet because I was waiting on crew assignments. It’s perfect! I can defer my crew placement for an academic reason without any backlash. You saved me! You just saved my life!”

Jake hugged Ameri tight happy in the knowledge that he wouldn’t be one of those used as cannon fodder the next time the Enterprise and Captain James T. Kirk decided to boldly go where no one has ever wanted to go.


End file.
